Provided photoPeachtown Elementary School, on the campus of Wells College in Aurora.

A tiny school in Central New York is taking on a big endeavor.

Submitted photoPeachtown Elementary students Rowan Hawk, of Moravia; Boone Anderson, of Lansing; Felix Chaplet, of King Ferry, will all be first graders this week. They will go to school only four days a week starting this school year.

The private Peachtown Elementary School on the Wells College campus in Aurora will switch to a four-day week when school starts Wednesday in an effort to save money on fuel and reduce its energy use.

"We're a very small, independent school. We have 25 students in Pre-K through eighth grade," principal Barbara Post said. "Some families live up to 20 miles away. To make two round-trips a day, it could cost easily $15 a day, $60 a week just for gas. Over the whole year, that's a lot of money. That was a big concern."

Post said she knows of no other school in New York state, except for a community college in the Adirondacks that has a four-day school week.

Marc Egan, the director of federal affairs at the National School Boards Association, said he also doesn't know of any other school in New York state that offers a four-day school week. However, about 100 public school districts in roughly 16 states nationwide have four-day weeks, he said.

"They're almost all small, rural school districts," Egan said. "Heating, transportation and utility costs seem to be the driving reasons why districts have gone to a four-day week. We're seeing more talk about it now because of fuel costs."

But very few schools have actually moved to the longer school days and shorter weeks, Egan said.

Submitted photoPeachtown Elementary School in Aurora, Cayuga County

Peachtown Elementary students will now go to school from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday.

This will allow the school to turn down the heat, shut off the lights and save on fuel costs for parents who live in Cayuga and Tompkins counties. Two public school districts -- Union Springs and Southern Cayuga central schools -- also won't have to bus Peachtown Elementary students who live within 15 miles of the school 33 days this school year, Post said.

Child care will be provided on Fridays this school year if parents have no other alternative. "We didn't want to leave them out to dry," Post said.

The school also is trying to arrange play dates so that the school can close most Fridays, she said.

"A lot of our children live in far reaching areas -- outside the mandated 15-mile bus limit. And often, the people who live farthest away from school are the ones who can least afford the gas prices," Post said. "We've always been socioeconomically and geographically diverse and I didn't want to lose that."